Tag - beehives

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

beekeeping equipment

Customize a beehive and make it your own

October 24, 2015

10 Comments

miscellaneous musings

Why do my hives smell like meat?

July 21, 2015

13 Comments

The Valhalla long hive addresses common problems of both bees and beekeepers.

beekeeping equipment

The stunning Valhalla long hive: low, sleek, and...

November 1, 2014

35 Comments

honey bee management • photographs

First frost

October 20, 2013

1 Comment

beekeeping equipment

A combination chicken and bee coop

June 30, 2013

8 Comments

bee stories • miscellaneous musings

Messing about with beehives

March 3, 2012

16 Comments

beekeeping equipment • how to

What size hardware cloth is best for bee hives?

June 30, 2011

28 Comments

A bee skep is a small behive made of straw, grasses, or clay. Michael Skeel

hive stands and structures

Bee skeps: the lost art of beautiful woven hives

January 19, 2011

4 Comments

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass

The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:

Arkansas
Georgia
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

Minnesota now has a state bee as well as a state insect. Bombus affinis, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee, has been so honored. Good work, Minnesota!

Connecticut’s state insect is the European “praying” mantis. Although they are beneficial insects, they are not native to North America.